What is RAPE?

Sex without consent is rape, including any form of oral or anal penetration using objects without someone’s consent.
Rape is a violent crime using sex as a weapon—rape is used to assert one’s domination over another. It is not committed to satisfy a sexual urge.
Rape is a gross violation of a person’s rights and is a form of discrimination.

Fast Facts:

  • 80% of all rape victims know their attackers for example, relatives, friends, partners.
  • Approximately 70% of rapes happen in safe places like at home, at school, a friend’s house.
  • Only 1 in every 10 rapes are reported; rape is one of the most under-reported crimes in the world.
  • Malaysian law narrowly defines rape as the penetration of the penis into the vagina of a woman without her consent. Sex with or without the consent of a girl below the age of 16 is considered statutory rape.  The punishment for rape is prescribed under Section 376 of the Penal Code.
  • Marital rape is not criminalized in Malaysia . Under the law, a husband can only be charged with causing hurt or fear of death, to his wife or any other person in order to have sexual intercourse with her (Penal Code, Section 375A).

 Myths about RAPE:

Myth  1. Women who wear revealing clothes get raped.
Fact: Clothing has nothing to do with whether someone is raped or not.
Women in school uniforms, or fully-clothed from head to toe have been raped.
Accusing a woman who has been raped of ‘asking for it’ due to her clothing blames the victim, and not the perpetrator of the crime.

Myth  2.  Men are unable to control their sexual urges and therefore rape.
Fact:  Men who rape do so in order to dominate over and control victims, not because they want to have sex. 
Men who rape make the conscious choice and decision to do so, just like anyone who commits a crime knowingly does so.
This myth of uncontrollable sexual urges excuses the perpetrator of responsibility and blames biology instead.

Myth  3. 'She didn't scream or fight back, so it wasn't rape'
Fact:  Women face the trauma of rape in many ways. Some freeze, and are too afraid to struggle.
The perpetrator may threaten to kill her if she puts up a fight.
In other situations women may be coerced into having sex.
The bottom line is, if sex is forced without a woman’s consent, rape has occurred, regardless of how the woman re-acts during the crime itself.

Myth 4:  ‘Kissing or hugging can lead to rape’
Fact: Consent to kissing or foreplay is NOT consent to sex!
You have the right to change your mind at any time. 
You have the right to say no, even if you’ve had sex with that person before.

 What to do if you have been raped:

  • Don’t blame yourself.
  • Don’t wash or bathe yourself.
  • Talk to someone you trust.
  • Make a police report.
  • Go to a general hospital and go directly to the One Stop Crisis Centre for medical check-up.
  • Call us or a women’s NGO for support and guidance.

If you know someone who has been raped:
  • Don’t blame him or her; be supportive
  • Accompany him/her to the police or hospital
  • Call us or a women’s NGO for more information



More comprehensive information is contained in our publication, The Rape Report: An Overview of Rape in Malaysia (AWAM; SIRD 2002)

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